Dear Baptized,
In your minds, go back a little more than 100 days. It's New Year's - a time when the best of intentions often surface with the naming of certain resolutions. Do you recall what some of them were. Doing so might make you smile as you consider several resolutions ... make you cringe when pondering a couple ... perhaps even make you weep at one. The Gospel reading for today tells us of the intentions made by Peter and the other disciples of our Lord. Listen to Mark 14:26-31 once again and hear the Word regarding the ...
... "The Best of Intentions"
Read the text.
Despite the best of intentions in their minds and repeatedly utter in their words about never falling away from Him - despite their steps which they walked with Him on that first Palm Sunday, they would all fall away from Him. Jesus brought His disciples down from the mountain-top of Palm Sunday with its waving and raving followers, to the solitude of denial when they were amongst the soldiers and foes sent by the chief priests, scribes and elders. He spoke of their falling away as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. "I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." The Good Shepherd will be stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, and the sheep will scatter. Could I, Peter, be so scattered? Never, he says. "Even though they all fall away, I will not!" Now Peter is more sure of himself than ever. These others may fall away from You, Jesus, but I never will.
We are no different. "Even though the rest might fall away from You Lord, I most certainly will not! Not me. Not my family. Not my children. Not my parents. Not my grandchildren." The Savior turns to Peter and publicly declares: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded you that he might sift you like wheat." Peter's response? "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death." Tens of thousands have stood in the house of the LORD and answered in the affirmative when asked, "Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church, and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?"
Jesus speaks to Peter, "Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times." Do you remember the words of the fisherman on that night? "I do not know what you mean." "I do not know theman." "I do not know the man!" Thus the scattering. Thus the best of intentions. And this would be the end of the account and our lives if there were no hope. But there is hope. Do you recall what else Jesus said? It was not only the consequences of sin's reality, but that other Word - the promise of hope now and life hereafter. "You will all fall away; for it is written, 'I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."
Jesus knew what was ahead and He has the best of intentions for the world even before the foundation of the world - before time and space. Christ came to redeem the world, not with silver and gold, but with His fulfillment of the Law, His sin-atoning suffering, His holy Blood shed and His innocent death. "But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."
He suffered and died for you. Death could not keep Him. Even though the tomb enclosed His body, the grave could not keep it. Christ lives and Jesus will not allow His sheep to remain scattered. He adds in consolation, hope and assurance that after He has been raised from the dead, He will precede His disciples into Galilee. God gathers His followers and is with them always even to the end of the age. Thus the LORD has been with His Church down through the centuries - gathering the scattered in His Name - absolving them of all their sins in the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit - speaking to His Church in the reading of His Word - setting His Table before His people and telling them to eat and to drink.
What is true for the many is true for the one - for you. Are you downcast because of neglected and broken resolutions that serve as a mirror to show you your sins? Then hear of your Savior whose suffering and death on the cross demonstrates that you are that important to Him. Does the future seem uncertain because of your failing health, then behold the Son of God Who sends the Holy Spirit to be with you always and of Whom you may say, "If God be for me, who can stand against me?" If your life is scattered because of a broken family or marriage, look to the Lord of the universe Who assembles the pieces and gives purpose and life. If your trust in someone has been shattered by unkept promises or told secrets, then behold the Son of God Who keeps all of His promises and Who remembers your sins no more.
You children, do you hear "The Best of Intentions"? Then hear the Word that applies to you, dear little one, and to the whole congregation just as it did to someone else - to a child of God named Jeremiah, and to the church: "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11). Amen..
The Second Confession of the Faith
from
The Formula of Concord – Epitome
Article XI – God’s Foreknowledge and Election
2] 1. To begin with [First of all], the distinction between praescientia et praedestinatio, that is, between God’s foreknowledge and His eternal election, ought to be accurately observed.
3] 2. For the foreknowledge of God is nothing else than that God knows all things before they happen, as it is written Dan. 2, 28: There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.
4] 3. This foreknowledge extends alike over the godly and the wicked, but it is not the cause of evil, neither of sin, namely, of doing what is wrong (which originally arises from the devil and the wicked, perverse will of man), nor of their ruin [that men perish], for which they themselves are responsible [which they must ascribe to themselves]; but it only regulates it, and fixes a limit to it [how far it should progress and] how long it should last, and all this to the end that it should serve His elect for their salvation, notwithstanding that it is evil in itself.
5] 4. The predestination or eternal election of God, however, extends only over the godly, beloved children of God, being a cause of their salvation, which He also provides, as well as disposes what belongs thereto. Upon this [predestination of God] our salvation is founded so firmly that the gates of hell cannot overcome it. John 10, 28; Matt. 16, 18.
6] 5. This [predestination of God] is not to be investigated in the secret counsel of God, but to be sought in the Word of God, where it is also revealed.
7] 6. But the Word of God leads us to Christ, who is the Book of Life, in whom all are written and elected that are to be saved in eternity, as it is written Eph. 1, 4: He hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world.